Girl from the North Country This is another very strong song dare I say stronger than the opener, This song amongst others on the album is the first that is perhaps clearly inspired by his then girlfriend Suze Rotolo and her leaving for Italy due to the demands the relationship cast over her and this song serves as quite the beautiful lament to a love lost, the vocals have this almost wistful inflection that you can tell comes from a place of pain and love. This is not a complex piece of poetry nor is it a indecipherable thought provoking piece but for what it is it serves its purpose well and is a feeling many can relate to (goodness knows I can) in that we can lose someone yet still wish they are taken care of. "Please see for me if she's wearing a coat so warm To keep her from the howlin' winds" Beautiful, simple yet elegant in execution 5/5
Here Is a great version from 1964 from the Canadian show "Quest" I feel the vocals are even more Impassioned here:
Girl From The North Country This is a beautiful, caressing song, one that drifts over the senses like a warm breeze. These pure folk-styled songs are not my favorite Dylan song type, but there's no denying for me how gorgeous this one is. 5/5
Girl From The North Country is a personal favourite. I first heard it at the age you need to hear romantic, yearning things. It's had a great hold on me for years and I always go back to it. May well be in my Dylan top 5
Incredible song, the Dylan/Cash version from Nashville Skyline is my favorite version, and all time favorite duet, love to sing it and play it on the guitar as well.
A beautiful song indeed. My favorite line is "In the darkness of my night/In the brightness of my day".
I love his more minimalistic, at times almost Haiku like, lyrics and many times find them more sharp and poignant than his more elaborated narratives or surreal landscapes.
Blowin' In The Wind is a great and very culturally significant song, but its not one of the six best songs on Freewheelin'. Girl From The North Country is sublime.
I first saw Bob perform live in 2004, and he treated us to a great reading of "Girl from the North Country" — one of the only pre-Highway 61 Revisited songs that took his fancy to play that night (the other being the sublime "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue"). A few years later, I finally saw him play again, this time in a bigger arena with Mark Knopfler opening the show and sitting in for part of the main set — and then Bob played "Blowin' in the Wind" as the encore. As two jaw-dropping songs sequenced back-to-back to open an album, I don't think there are many others that can come close to matching those
Great performance and nifty video too! I enjoy all the finger picking songs that Bob used to do! Shout out to @Richard--W and @Tribute and @RayS and @Sean Murdock and @DeeThomaz and @Percy Song in case they’ve not seen this thread yet. — David
Well...you got 'Like A Rolling Stone' and ''Tombstone Blues' but that's a few years and a few albums down the road yet.
Next July Dylan will play again in Perugia a beautiful city in Umbria Region in Italy. That's the Place he went searching for Suze in January 1963 because she was there studying...She left the city earlier and went back to NY unknown to Bob who found himself alone in Perugia and "wrote" Girl From The North Country (learned in London a few days earlier) and Boots Of Spanish Leather for Suze
We've danced this before.. LOL. Rainy Day... Of all the songs on this album, Oh never mind, I've siad it before.
Songwriter fashioned this into something heavy and personal and, well, American, looking to Minnesota from Italy or wherever he was, partly by way of an English tune. Alchemy of a sorts ★★★★★
Note: I will also be amending the list of song's to discuss after the album and including the three released under the name "Blind boy Grunt" for Broadside Ballads Vol. 1 during the album period (though not on colombia), the list will now be as follows: 1. "Mixed Up Confusion" (withdrawn single) 2. "Rocks and Gravel" (Freewheelin' Early press) 3. "Let Me Die in My Footsteps" (Freewheelin' Early press) 4. "Rambling Gambling Willie" (Freewheelin' Early press) 5. "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues" (Freewheelin' Early press) 6. "John Brown" (Broadside Ballads Vol.1) 7. "Only a Hobo" (Broadside Ballads Vol.1) 8."Talking Devil" (Broadside Ballads Vol.1) A fourth Dylan composition is included on the compilation though he doesn't take lead vocal so I have made the decision not to include it. If I am missing anything else officially released around this period let me know. We may discuss some of these songs again in future, however thankfully a lot of dylan's recordings are different enough to formulate a differing opinion.
Huh, I knew about Boots of Spanish Leather, but I always figured "Girl from the North Country" was about his high school girlfriend. After all, you can't get much more "north country" than Hibbing, Minnesota. Great song, but I definitely prefer the Nashville Skyline version.